Whatever It Takes
by LocoAndDeep
Summary: The team was getting back together after a two week break, but when Parker had her fortune cookie breakfast at the Bridgeport, her world turned upside down. Eliot knew he had a job to do... Leaving Moreau behind was a bad idea. He got out of that cell and Eliot had been on his trail since to keep him away from the team. Can he do it alone? And for how long?


**A/N - This is rated M more so for the violence and language. I will let you know if any smut will be popping up.**

**A/N - If any of you out there read this on my LJ, you'll have to read it again because I edited a few things.**

**This is an old project from last year I thought you guys here on FanFiction might like.**

**So please let me know by your reviews!**

**Thanks and Enjoy!**

* * *

The last job had gone off without a hitch. No injuries to Eliot and the team… A perfect scenario. The team decided to take a two week break and meet up at the end of the announced time period. Hardison was the first one back to Portland, Oregon. This was kind of normal because he had to start the prep work computer-wise for the team to look at when they got back. They had a short list of the next possible jobs they were going to take. He had started work on backgrounds and new identities for the team early that morning when Parker came down through an air duct in the ceiling above the meeting desk, which was right behind the sofa he was sitting on with his laptop.

"YEEHAW," Parker called out and Hardison nearly dropped his laptop as he jumped up from where he was comfortably seated.

"Why can't you come through a door, Chica? You know I hate it when you sneak up on me."

"Because I'm not normal… You know that," she said with a wicked little smile.

"Welcome back," he spoke before gave her a quick half hug.

He knew she didn't like to be touched. When he just had to hug her, she allowed a half hug if he was the initiator. If she was the initiate, she could give a full hug if she wanted to. Normally, she didn't like anyone crossing her personal space barrier. About a month prior to their last job, Parker flat out told Hardison that they weren't computing; they just weren't compatible. He liked computers, gaming, video and otherwise, science fiction, and comic books too much. He had figurines all over his apartment and piles of source books for role playing everywhere. For her it was too creepy to have plastic dolls in different threatening action poses. They were making out on his sofa when the last straw broke. The bobble head of Jim Carey as the Joker from the movies made this face at her and it just turned her off completely. So they decided to remain friends for the sake of the team and because she didn't want to make Eliot mad Hardison for not getting his head out of his ass when it came to her, and mad at her for being not being normal.

Hardison sort of knew that her break up with him was coming. She just didn't seem to want to obsess in the same things he did. He did so because he was possessed by the creativity and the escape it provided. Because if he didn't have it, he'd just be a hacker with no life that grifted and provided means of escape for others. To him computers, comics, and gaming were his life… Until he met Halle not too long after he and Parker split… She legally changed her name from Alyssa Rochelle Daniels to Halle Rochelle Baker after she saw her first X-Men movie with Halle Berry and the movie of Josephine Baker with her in it. She usually went by Ro or Hal. She shared his obsessions; she didn't have much computer knowledge but she was most definitely into gaming and comic books. He met her the first weekend of their break, at a convention no less. By the end of the weekend, they'd ended up sharing her room. He ate the cost of his own room until the Monday after and erased any trace of his stay from the hotel records. So far, things were going good as long as Hardison didn't screw things up and forgot to call her. The hacker casually watched as Parker packed up her repelling gear back into the bag and then he heard her hit the kitchen. When he heard the pop of the fortune cookies he knew what she was into… Then she came back to bug him.

"So, how's it with Mr. Superhero? What'd you do while you were gone?"

"Ya know, I did the usual. Went to a con, met a girl, got my geek on, and came back to Sherwood Forest. My Spidey senses tell me, you sole somethin'."

"Oh nothing, just a few things from the national archives."

"Parker! That's our history mama, you gotta give it back."

"Already done. Thomas Jefferson should have asked me for a loan to finish his house," she randomly said.

"Riight, as if you were alive then.

"Da Vinci and Benjamin Franklin were really naughty men…"

"Nate and Sophie are comin' in a little later, towards the evening. Their flight from Paris was delayed," he remembered from checking the texts on his phone earlier and tuning Parker out.

"Sophie probably bought too many things. The plane was too heavy to take off," Parker joked dryly. "Any word on Eliot?"

"Nada, Chica."

He watched her as she cracked open her next to last fortune cookie out of the two handfuls out of the case he knew she had in the cabinet marked Parker's Stash. She had it locked and she picked the lock every time to get what she wanted. Alec watched her read it and she began to shake…

"No, no, no," she cried out as she wrapped her arms around herself.

* * *

Hardison was up in a flash and he had his arm around her shoulders, "What is it mama? Tell me."

"The fortune. It's not true. It can't be."

"What did it say?"

"I can't repeat it or it might come true," Parker continued to shake. "You can read it if you want to, just don't say it out loud, okay?"

"Okay kitten. I won't," Alec decided it was best to humor her since the others weren't back yet.

'Hmm… You will soon be given horrible news,' he silently read to himself.

"Baby, you know what you gotta do? Don't-cha? Open another cookie. That should cancel out this one."

She seemed to like the idea and she rushed over to the kitchen, and did so. Tears began to form in her eyes as she handed him the next one.

"It didn't work…" she whined.

'You will soon travel to an arid climate,' he read to himself.

"Okay mama, let's put the cookies away for a while. Here, have a box of Golden Grahams until the others get here," he tried to soothe her.

Alec hoped that the others would get back soon. He didn't know if he could handle a freaked out Parker much longer. There had to be nothing to what the thief had read in the fortunes, she was crazy after all… They were supposed to be random sayings or quotes sometimes with Lotto numbers on the back, weren't they? Yeah, it was just a coincidence…

* * *

Several hours later, Parker was still pacing around the room; first by the sofa, meeting desk, and coffee table. Then repeat. She still had a box of cereal in her hand, although now she had graduated from Golden Grahams to Cookie Crisp. Why not? After all, Parker considered herself to be the ultimate Cookie Crisp Crook… Something felt wrong ever since she opened the fortune cookies earlier that morning. She turned her head slightly to an angle and narrowed her eyes when she suddenly began to feel cold. The blond thief didn't like the chills that ran up her spine…

'Must believe it's not true… Must believe it's not true…' she kept thinking in lieu of talking at all.

When the box was empty she handed it to Hardison and went to find the elliptical shaped large dog bed she had hidden at Nate's and put it on the floor near the window. Hardison told her he was going down to watch out for the others. She tuned him out before she sat down and tried to clear her mind as she remembered how Archie taught her to meditate to focus her energy. It was the only thing she could think of to do or she felt like she was going to explode into a million pieces… So, she slowed her breathing and closed her eyes. She cleared her mind and then canceled out all sound around her. The woman had entered what she considered the void. She couldn't hear or see anything of the environment she was in. Parker had secrets… One of which was the fact that she had a couple gifts beyond her thievery skills; she had extra sensory gifts. She was able to foresee herself in jobs to help her make sure she had every detail covered before she would then go out and complete it as she'd seen it. If she touched objects she could see things too…

One of the good things about her gifts, she could sense if people were good or bad, was able to see the past and the future, but not too far ahead, maybe only a few days ahead. Time told her if she was right or not. Obviously, she kept these secrets to herself and Archie had helped her to hone them because he saw them as an asset. Only if she thought it was necessary would she tell someone ideas to help them correct their fate… When they first got together, she read them all, and she saw that they were going to become the family she'd always wished she had. What bothered her most is that she hadn't foreseen what was going to happen with the fortune cookies and the cereal… Parker started to focus and in her mind's eye she began to try to get a feel for what was going to happen in the future.

* * *

Abruptly, Alec came in carting in Sophie and Nate's luggage, literally. He had a push cart from storage usually reserved for deliveries hauling his colleague's belongings and newly gained items. He was already grumbling something about too much damn baggage as they followed behind him all lovey dovey, and not paying attention to anything other than each other. Neither one of the two noticed that Parker was on the floor on her doggy bed… Otherwise known as her meditation mat, but he had. She was still there where he'd left her. Hardison wondered if she was asleep… She didn't move a muscle as he parked the cart by the meeting desk and squatted down next to her; not touching her. She said nothing to him after he'd given her the first box of cereal and had tried not to interrupt her once she'd started. He couldn't handle listening to anymore of her crunching. When she handed him the empty cereal box, he took a break and went down below to watch for the others. Alec did try to check back in on her at least once an hour until he saw Nate and Sophie come strolling in at just about 1:30 in the afternoon. She'd been meditating since he'd left her that morning. He figured she must have been in some kind of trance. And now as Alec sat worried there next to her, she still seemed like she wasn't all there.

"What's wrong with Parker," Sophie worriedly asked as she took a seat on one of the corners of the coffee table.

"Not sure. She got some bad juju fortunes in her cookies this morning and she hasn't been right since."

"How long as she been like this?" Nate spoke as he sat down on the sofa beside Sophie.

"Practically all mornin'. Started out with her pacin' the floor, eatin' cereal. I left her up here for a while to get some work done downstairs, you know takin' a break and all, and I checked in on her, but she kept sittin' there."

"So cold… Must find Eliot. Must find Eliot," Parker suddenly said in a trance state as her eyes were open, glazed over, and staring beyond Sophie's head to a wall behind her.

Hardison left her on the floor and went to his laptop… He began to quickly tap away on the keyboard sitting on the team's meeting desk.

* * *

Nate stood and crossed the room to where Parker sat on her meditation mat. He sat down next to her and crossed his legs just like hers. He was surprised when she suddenly leaned over and put her head on his left shoulder. He wondered why she had put her head there.

"Has anyone tried calling him?" Sophie asked as she toed off her shoes and took up the spot opposite Nate. "Texted?"

Parker's head left his shoulder and it met Sophie's as soon as the woman sat on the floor by the dog bed. She wrapped her arms around the grifter as she tried to bury her forehead in her neck. So instead of making a big stink out of it, Sophie just wrapped her arms around Parker's shoulders.

"I've had my phone off, for obvious reasons," Nate voiced as he hooked at Sophie.

"Well, his cell says he's still here in Portland," Hardison whipped out his cell and began to dial the hitter's number.

He let it ring the appropriate amount of rings until it hit the recorded message of his phone's answering service.

"Call me back man, Parker's flippin' out," he stated and hung up. "Now we just gotta wait."

* * *

"I can't," Parker addressed the group. "I can't."

"You can't what, Parker," Sophie asked.

"I can't," she voiced like a broken record.

It was like she needed to know where Eliot was like she needed to breathe. She hadn't been able to see where he was, but she did see that the four of them were going to be on a plane soon. Parker spoke no more as she stood, left her meditation mat behind as she grabbed the bag of gear she had next to the sofa and was out the door before anyone could protest. Every inhale she took hurt like hundreds of Eliot's sharp kitchen knives were plunged into her chest. The thief climbed on the motorcycle she had stored for emergencies in the brew pub's storeroom. Yes, the girl could ride. She took off to find Eliot…

'Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay,' she repeated in her mind like a mantra.

* * *

"What the hell was that all about, Hardison?" Nate said as he stood and helped Sophie up off the floor.

"This morning she got into her stash… And found a fortune she didn't like. Claimed it would come true if she read it out loud."

"What did it say," Sophie asked a she started to put a kettle for tea on.

"You will soon be given horrible news. I told her to read another one, you know, thinkin' those things were supposed to be random musings of some old person in a back room. I told her the next one should cancel out the first one. So she opened another and then she really flipped out on me man, started cryin' and everything. The other one said, 'You will soon travel to an arid climate."

"And what happened?" The grifter queried as she pulled a couple chocolate biscotti that Eliot made from a canister in Nate's kitchenette.

"She started pacing with her cereal… When one box emptied, I gave her another until she finally went and sat down to do that meditation thingy she does."

"I say we raid her fortune cookie stash and see what the others say," Sophie announced her brilliant plan.

* * *

Parker hadn't told anyone that when she touched the paper fortunes, she'd seen them all on a plane and a vast desert… So she was headed to find Eliot or some of Eliot's things to touch… Maybe she could pinpoint where he was with her special ESP gifts. She hadn't seen the hitter in the visions she'd had yet, but that's what she hoped would happen when she touched some of his things. It was worth a shot and really it was the only lead they had. She headed up to Arlington Heights where Eliot's true home was. The others didn't know that he had a secret home near the Japanese Garden, the International Rose Test Garden, and the Hoyt Arboretum, aside from his city apartment. He liked being where nature was; he wasn't a city boy if he could avoid it. She found this out one night when she had bad nightmares and ended up nearly getting shot as she broke into his place in the middle of the night. He'd yelled at her to get out and go home but then she stopped him by telling him that she needed to feel safe. He caved but he made her sleep on his sofa instead of sharing his bed. She was okay with that because so many other women shared his bed and she didn't want to sleep there. It helped that the hitter had the best damn sofa on the planet. It was an over-stuffed black leather three seat sofa that just kind of enveloped you in comfort as soon as you sat down. He added a sheet and she was reminded of sleeping on clouds when she first stayed the night…

She'd ended up spending a week of nights on Eliot's sofa and then her nightmares had gone. Parker had gone back to her place after that. She tried not to make a nuisance of herself much more after that. She'd been able to curb the nightmares back to once a month and she only went to his place if they were really bad. The blond thief traipsed through his backyard garden; she was under his bedroom window. The thief couldn't see inside because his vertical blinds were closed. Parker hoped that he was home but she was quickly disappointed to find his bed made, military style and his clothing all picked up off of the floor. She searched the closet and some of his clothing was still there; his hair products were still on the bathroom counter. The gun she assumed would be under his pillow was missing and the spare in his nightstand had vanished as well. A visit once when he wasn't home on another occasion led her to find out where he kept some of the weapons in his room. She searched the rest of the home for more clues to where Eliot was, only to come up empty. The home in the city was devoid of Eliot and clues as well. She'd been there after his secret place.

Parker whipped out her cell and called Hardison. He made sure to put it on speakerphone.

"He's not here guys… And the guns in his room are gone."

"How do you know where he…" Alec worriedly whined.

"There's not even a mess like he left in a hurry. What about that shoe thing, like the one you've got in my shoes," Parker spoke, even though he didn't have tracking in every pair of her shoes; especially not in the pair she had on.

"Give the geek a second," he said as he typed away.

* * *

"Come on back and be careful, Parker," Nate said as he went to the wet bar to pour himself a drink.

Sophie pulled Nate aside before he could complete the task.

"I'm worried about her Nate, this could really hurt her. You remember the last time he tried to leave the team."

"I know, I know, right after that job with the bomb and Moreau, but he didn't seem like he wanted to leave the team when we went on break after we left that man in jail in San Lorenzo."

"What if we can't find him?"

"Not going to go there just yet," Nate said as he placed a kiss to her forehead

He didn't want to think about how Parker knew what she knew about Eliot, much less how she knew where he lived. He didn't really have to think about how she got in because he knew she used her special talents. Silently, Nate hoped that they could find Eliot in one piece and safe somewhere. He poured him a double into a short glass and moved closer to the sofa. The mastermind had talked himself into the drink because if Eliot was in trouble, then he was in for one hell of a nightmare.

* * *

Hardison was working his super laptop tracking Eliot down when he spotted something he was sure no one was going to like, especially Parker. Fortunately, she'd hung up before he could share.

"Uh guys, this is bad. This is really bad."


End file.
